American Indian Culture and Research Journal

This paper considers the implications of the powerful "overlapping territories" map produced by the government of Canada in its attempt to refute human rights violations charges brought by Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The map is at the core of Canada's defense in that it suggests that overlapping indigenous territories negate claims of exclusivity over the land and therefore any kind of obligations the state may have in respect of human or other indigenous rights in those lands. Revealing the limits of cartographic abstractions of indigenous spatialities, as well as the perilous stakes for indigenous peoples when engaging in conventional discourses of territoriality, these issues have broad significance.

The origin of enduring stereotypes of Native peoples conjured by Christopher Columbus in the late-fifteenth century, the Kalinago people of today live in Dominica, an island with a unique, complicated history of settlement and resistance. Kalinagos dedicated to raising "cultural consciousness" participate in Dominican museum and heritage projects as well as in international indigenous meetings abroad. This article suggests the concept of "the professionalization of indigeneity" to consider how some Native people are experts at representation itself: producers of representations of their communities both on their communities' behalf and for the public abroad, yet always with attention to state relations at home.

When protests arose from a new Canadian federal policy requiring border officers to carry handguns in 2009, authorities shut down the border to Akwesasne Territory. An initial Canada Broadcasting Corporation news article on this highly publicized event caused an influx of people to post opinions to the online article's message board. Examining 657 of these comments, we analyze the embeddedness of discourses relating to securitization, sovereignty, and citizenship. Highlighting the contentious dichotomy that defines the problematic as either "the Natives" or "the State," this article reveals how many perceptions are filtered through a colonialist lens—a mentality that considers Native peoples a threat and assumes that Canada is "under attack from within."

The goal of this research was to develop accessible and culturally relevant urban Aboriginal health information in Ontario. Concept mapping was used to engage Aboriginal stakeholders in identifying health concerns and priorities, with key stakeholders participating from three communities: First Nations people in Hamilton through De dwa da dehs ney>s Aboriginal Health Access Centre (DAHC), Inuit people in Ottawa through Tungasuvvingat Inuit Family Health Team (TIFHT) and Métis people in Ottawa through the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO). Each community participated in the three concept-mapping activities and generated statements regarding health and health related issues in their communities. Concept systems software was used to create initial cluster maps, which were finalized during map interpretation sessions. Each of the clusters on the unique community maps represented a community health domain. The chosen domain labels and their ratings strongly reflected local First Nations, Inuit, and Métis understandings of health. Concept mapping is found to be an effective and culturally relevant community-based method for urban Aboriginal health research, building on traditional indigenous methods, encouraging cross-community participation and contributing to three unique health assessment tools that challenge existing illness-based narratives for these populations and reflect indigenous-specific social determinants of health.

The fields of ecological engineering, resilience research, and Anishinaabe culture share strong epistemological relationships and common principles. These alignments can be found in worldview, ways of learning, traditional indigenous ecosystem engineering methods, and governance. This article explores how recognizing these alignments enables Anishinaabe cultural knowledge and ways of being to inform and provide the foundation for contemporary engineered design. It also proposes the use of a biocultural engineering design method that integrates the design principles of ecological engineering with indigenous knowledge, cultural relationships, values, and decision-making processes to support contemporary sustainable nation-building.

This commentary examines the use of American Indian culture in the strategic marketing of goods and services produced from within the American Indian community. Building on concepts from multiple academic disciplines, we introduce a new construct for this practice: the "culture-of-origin" effect. Specifically, the culture-of-origin effect is the strategic use of one's cultural identity as a resource that increases the value of one's products. Moreover, we explore the ethical ramifications of exploiting one's cultural identity for capital gain by highlighting the quandary that emerges when individuals seek to profit from a resource (cultural capital) that belongs collectively to the tribe.